Carl Froch holds his new-born daughter Natalia to his bare chest, kisses her tenderly on the forehead and says of child and mother: ‘She’s going to be as beautiful as my lovely Rachael.’
This domestic idyll seems light years distant from the punishing brutality of the prize-ring. Yet even as these photographs were being taken, the next world-title defence for the family breadwinner was fast approaching.
Now Saturday fight night is almost upon us and Froch’s opponent is drawing encouragement from his conviction that the joys of fatherhood will drain the venom out of The Cobra.
Froch’s feisty reaction suggests otherwise: ‘If Mikkel Kessler thinks I’m going soft just because I’m a dad then he’s the one who’s gone soft in the head.’ To inure himself against distraction during the final weeks of training, Froch moved into separate quarters within the handsome six-bedroom mansion recently purchased to accommodate his growing family.
‘We call it the East Wing,’ he says jocularly of the suite above the garage. ‘It’s been hard on Rachael because she’s the only one having to get up three times a night. But right now I need my unbroken sleep.’
Kessler is one of only two men to have beaten Froch in his 32-fight career and Britain’s No 1 boxer is so intensely focused on avenging that defeat that he has been down to within a pound of the 12 stone super-middleweight limit for three weeks.
Family fortunes: Carl Froch with children Natalia and Rocco and their mother Rachael Cordingley Fighting talk: Froch discusses his upcoming world title fight with Mikkel Kessler with Sportsmail's Jeff PowellNor is his mood as benign as Kessler would like to believe. Froch is not best pleased that two of his fellow Brits went to Denmark to give his rival the benefit of their sparring.
Of Nathan Cleverly and George Groves, he says: ‘How can a pair of our country’s boxing prospects go over there to help the enemy? If they wanted sparring there was nothing to stop them coming to me.
‘It’s very disappointing, to say the least. If we were at war, people would be calling them traitors.’
Froch refers to them both, not just Groves, as prospects because he does not regard the WBO belt held by Cleverly to be as authentic a world title as the WBC crown he lost narrowly to Kessler or the IBF championship he wrenched from the previously undefeated Lucien Bute with such abrupt violence.
On home soil: Froch will take on Kessler at London's O2 Arena on Saturday‘Those two keep talking about wanting to fight me,’ he says. ‘Let’s see how they feel about that after getting in the ring with just one opponent in the same class as all those I’ve been fighting in the last few years.
‘Boxing at elite, world level is something completely different.’
'Tell Mikkel I’m totally focused on giving him a whupping.'Froch is coming to the 10th in his four-and-a-half-year sequence of world-title fights against such esteemed rivals as Kessler, Jean Pascal, Jermain Taylor, Arthur Abraham, Bute and Andre Ward — all world champions in their own right.
The blood is up as he reflects on those battles but Froch, at 35, has learned to contain every fighter’s aggressive instinct and channel it into a performance as controlled as it can be ferocious.
‘People ask why we do this,’ he says, with one eye on Rachael. Perhaps to reassure Ms Cordingley, mother and glamour model, he goes on: ‘They don’t realise that for us this is our sport. It’s the game we love to play.
Helping the enemy: Both Nathan Cleverly (left) and George Groves have sparred with Mikkel Kessler‘We don’t think about injury because that’s not what we intend to inflict on each other. I don’t look at my opponent’s eyes in the ring. I watch his gloves so that I can block or avoid his punches. It’s a science. When I throw my own I’m aiming to score points with the judges by landing on the target area — the torso or the head. If I do that harder and more often than him I will wear him down and beat him.
‘Sure, the ultimate can be to knock a man unconscious. But that very rarely does lasting damage and there are many more fatalities in lots of other sports.
‘The wounds we get might look terrible but are usually superficial. Cuts and bruises.’ That coherent rationale may not totally settle the butterflies in the recently pregnant tummy of the mother of his two children — the bouncy first-born Rocco is three now — but it is at odds with all the bloodthirsty hyperbole traditionally used by boxing to fill seats.
No such rantings by Froch and Kessler were needed to sell out London’s O2 Arena within two hours of the 19,000 tickets going online. If not quite the close friends they are portrayed to be, the two protagonists in this potential fight of the year are mutually admiring acquaintances.
Happy families: Froch with his partner Rachael, daughter Natalia and son Rocco
That respect was cemented in their first, thunderous fight in Denmark, which fell to Kessler so closely on points that Froch has been three years champing for vengeance.
As negotiations neared completion, Kessler appeared to be wavering and Froch says: ‘It looked as if Mikkel was having second thoughts about our rematch, so I sent him a text asking if he still fancied the fight.
‘He texted back saying not to worry, that he was only trying to get the best possible deal for himself.’
Courtesy of Sky lifting their moratorium on pay-per-view broadcasts, a second epic became possible.
Froch is as pleased about that on behalf of younger, emerging boxers as for himself.
He says: ‘I’m proud that I’m the one who is bringing back pay-per-view in Britain. I’ve always known my fights are exciting and I’m pleased Sky now agree.
Sealed with a kiss: Froch celebrates his win over Lucian Bute with partner Rachael Model good looks: Rachael Cordingley has done a number of photoshoots and is ringside at Froch's fights‘For a start it is a compliment that they’re breaking the embargo to put me on Sky Box Office. But it also gives up-and-coming boxers a better chance of securing their financial futures.
‘And as far as Saturday is concerned, big fights like this can’t happen without pay-TV money. Without it, I don’t believe we would have got Mikkel to come to England.’
Froch’s turn at home advantage must be beneficial, especially if this second fight is as close as the first.
But what else helps convince him he is about to spring a reversal of fortunes? Kessler insists that Froch has remained essentially ‘the same fighter with the same flaws’ during these prime years of his career but Nottingham Forest’s No 1 fan says: ‘I’ve kept improving in many ways. Boxers evolve with experience.
Public workout: Froch trains in Nottingham city centre with Rob McCrackenSkip to the beat: Froch goes through his work out routine infront of the watching crowds
Belt up: Froch is looking to add Kessler's WBA belt to his collection
‘My trainer Rob McCracken (Britain’s successful London Olympic coach) has driven into me the importance of the second phase of an attack.
‘Now, after I land punches, I slip the counters and connect with follow-up combinations. That was something Bute couldn’t cope with.
‘Also my footwork is better. We’ve sorted out the distance between my feet and I’m more balanced.
‘That means better movement so I don’t take as many shots as I used to. There’s something weird about me the way even the biggest punches to the jaw don’t wobble me, but if you can avoid being hit too often, so much the better.
The sequel: Froch andl Kessler will do battle for the second time this weekend Real battle: Kessler and Froch fought it out over 12 rounds in Denmark in 2010 Ultimate warriors: Kessler beat Froch by a unanimous points decisionDejection: Kessler celebrates after beating Froch who looks disappointed after the fight
‘Most importantly of all, I’m busier now. And quicker. I had a bit of a reputation as a slow starter but now I come out fast and firing from the first bell.
‘You saw that against Bute. I blitzed him from the off and he could never settle. He was unbeaten before and now it looks like I may have ended his career.
‘I always finish strong and if I’d been up and running from the start against Kessler I’m sure I would have stopped him late in the fight. I’m even more certain that’s what’s going to happen on Saturday night.’
That conviction is strengthened, not diluted, by the arrival of little Natalia.
Back on form: Froch demolished Canadian Lucian Bute to win the IBF belt in 2012Night to remember: Froch celebrates his win over Bute in Nottingham
At the time of their first fight, Rachael was heavily pregnant with Rocco when she joined Carl on a private jet to Denmark which had to fly low and turbulently under that infamous volcanic ash cloud.
He says: ‘We were worried about the effect on the birth. There were also all the usual concerns about having your first child.
‘Now Natalia is safely with us and healthy. Instead of anxious, I’m happy. Instead of tense, I’m relaxed.’
Putting it all on the line: Froch is looking to avenge the the defeat he suffered to Kessler in 2010As he speaks he nuzzles Natalia and embraces both Rocco and Rachael with that long left arm which, within an hour or two, will be put to sterner use as a shuddering jab.
As he sets off for sparring, he says: ‘Kessler probably doesn’t get it because he doesn’t have kids of his own. But when I’m training and fighting I shut out family, home, everything except boxing. I’m purely a fighter in the zone.
‘Tell Mikkel I’m totally focused on giving him a whupping.’
Message delivered. Like a postcard from the edge, it comes with a happy family snap on the front... and a clenched fist on the back.
VIDEO: Watch Kevin Quigley's video from Froch's public workout
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